Court gives Tiwari time to reply in paternity suit

The Delhi High Court Wednesday gave former Andhra Pradesh governor N.D. Tiwari a last chance for filing his response in a paternity suit filed by a 34-year-old man who claims the Congress leader is his biological father.

The court directed Tiwari, 86, to file a written reply to a plea by Rohit Shekhar within four weeks, failing which he will have to appear personally before it.

Tiwari was asked to file his response on the over 200 photographs filed by Shekhar in which both of them can be seen together on different occasions and also on the petitioner’s application demanding a DNA test.

Justice J.R. Midha granted four weeks’ time to Tiwari to file his response and said: ‘The whole controversy is because you (Tiwari) are not filing the reply. Everything will be solved once you file your response to this issue.’

The court while allowing an application filed by Tiwari seeking more time for filing a reply warned that it was his last opportunity or else he will have to appear in court on May 20, the next date for next hearing.

When Tiwari’s counsel submitted that he had filed a special leave petition in the apex court on the same issue, the high court said: ‘It does not matter whether you have filed the petition in the Supreme Court till the time you get any favourable order from there.’

The court on March 17 dismissed Tiwari’s plea challenging the paternity suit. The court said that it may consider ordering a DNA test if the issue of maintainability was raised by him.

Earlier, a division bench had refused to admit Shekhar’s petition saying that Tiwari was the governor of Andhra Pradesh and the suit against him should be filed in that state.

However in the last hearing, the high court yielded that since Tiwari was not the governor of that state any more and had an official residence in Delhi, the case could be heard by the Delhi High Court.

Shekhar said he sought a DNA test to know if Tiwari was his biological father.

According to Shekhar’s petition, Tiwari began neglecting him and his mother Ujjawala Sharma after 1995 and refused to meet him after becoming the Uttranchal chief minister.

Tiwari’s five-decade-old political career came to a virtual end after a news channel last year showed clippings of an elderly man purported to be Tiwari in bed with three young women. A few days later, Tiwari resigned as the Andhra Pradesh governor citing health grounds.